The mission involved 860 Air India flights; 1,256 charter flights and 8 warships.
New Delhi:
On Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that more than 5 Indians stranded by lakh had safely returned to India from 137 countries as part of the Vande Bharat (VBM) mission.
“VBM operations began on May 7, 2020 and in less than two months, 5,03,990 stranded Indians from 137 countries, including remote areas, returned home. Considering that the original objective of bringing stranded Indians to compelling reasons was only 2 lakh, this is an important achievement, “MEA said in a statement.
According to the statement, Kerala hosted the largest number of stranded Indians (94,085), followed by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
The largest number of stranded Indians returned by VBM flights is from the United Arab Emirates (57,305), followed by Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United States and Nepal (91 193) have returned through land border checkpoints, the ministry said.
The mission involved 860 Air India flights; 1,256 charter flights and 8 warships. The stranded Indians expelled by Air India were 1,64,121; Indian Navy 3,987 in 8 ships from the Maldives, Iran and Colombo; charter flights – 2 30 832 and foreign carriers – 3 969; around sixty air ambulances and 95,220 at land border checkpoints in neighboring countries.
“This massive operation was carried out with the active support and cooperation of Indian missions abroad, MoCA, MHA, MoHFW and state governments. The MEA has appointed senior officers as state coordinators who were at the forefront of these operations, ensuring harmonious coordination at all levels. ” said the MEA release.
